America should have recovered from its Cold War hangover

Almost all Western TV channels are lashing out at each other for portraying Russia in its worst light, re-playing the images in the use of subliminal advertising techniques. Even the BBC, known for its fairness, has turned into a sort of Cold War Radio Free Europe, a CIA-run channel that would spread propaganda across the USSR and its allies.

In a world bombarded by one-sided news round the clock, who will look to history? In an era when humans have less attention than a goldfish, who will take a deep dive to take primary responsibility for the Ukrainian crisis and ask, is the Russian leadership as monstrous as the West seems to us?

Not that Putin has democratic instincts. But if the stated objective of the West is ultimately a democratic Russia, then its victorious policies after the dissolution of the USSR have not helped. The opposite result has come to the fore. It was also no coincidence that the only Pope to be elected from Eastern Europe, John Paul II of Poland, was brought to the Vatican in 1978. It was he who encouraged fellow countrymen not to “fear” when the CIA was funding the solidarity movement. in Poland. But Washington did not stop there. When the USSR collapsed, the US initiated its “non-negotiable” decision to expand NATO, said the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American commentator. The alliance expanded to include countries under the former USSR’s sphere of influence.

Even US Defense Secretary Bill Perry, led by President Bill Clinton, lamented the absurdity of US support for NATO expansion. He said that in the early years after the Cold War, the US and Russia were working together, and the latter began to see NATO as a friend. But it was “inconvenient” to see NATO expanding its borders and appealing for restraint. But America saw it as an opportunity to eliminate the remnants of its old enemy. In 1998 a stubborn Senate ratified the expansion of NATO. George Kennan, who had sown the seeds of success in taking control of the USSR, said it would be a new Cold War and Moscow would react. He called it a “tragic mistake.”

and Joseph R. What did Biden Jr., the current US President and the leading proponent of the then ratification effort and a key figure on the US Foreign Relations Committee, say? That it was “the beginning of another 50 years of peace.” It was not so. An insecure Russia occupied Georgia in 2008.

And what does the Biden-led brigade want to convince the world? That Russia is guilty of targeting civilians and committing war crimes. Without independent verification, we can only say that it may or may not happen. But it is certain that if it didn’t care about civilians, it could have done what American General Curtis E. LeMay said what the US should do in Vietnam: bomb it “back to the Stone Age”.

And what is the American record on the war? The US and its allies ruthlessly destroyed retreating Iraqi forces, using cluster bombs, during the 1991 Desert Storm. It became a killing ground that became infamous as the ‘Highway of Death’. And the ‘free press’, which is accusing Russia of curtailing press freedom, also refused to publish a photo of a desperate Iraqi soldier by Kenneth Jerke that was devoured. A little more than a decade later, Iraq was invaded by US-UK-led forces in a bid to find non-existent weapons of mass destruction. A Brown University study showed that more than 80,000 civilians were injured and over 200,000 killed in “direct war-related” violence. If political and military leaders of participating countries are accused of war crimes, it would probably support a humanitarian case to be prosecuted. Putin and his military officers. If not, how can anyone blame Putin, even if he uses the principle of ‘pre-emptive strike’, which George W. Bush stated that Article 51 of the United Nations Charter is enshrined in his “war of choice”, in 2003 in Iraq (only one of 17 examples of such US military intervention since World War II)?

Today, anyone who questions US intervention can be accused of being undemocratic. But during the Bangladesh War of 1971, the US commanded a task force of eight ships, led by the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, in support of Pakistan. It didn’t matter that India was (and is) the largest democracy.

The West is also supplying Ukraine with increasingly sophisticated weapons. But he knows it will not change the outcome of the conflict. It will only give the hapless Ukrainian the false hope that they can fight and win. This would lead to further civil misery, although it would offend Russia, which may be the motive.

If the war lasts longer and results in further isolation of Russia, it could be on the road to retaliation. This would make the world less peaceful. Russia will aggressively support any regime against the US, which has been creating hotspots. It would provide additional impetus to the Russian-China partnership that would immensely benefit China, whose policies could be more deadly to global stability and peace than Putin’s. Russian technology and Chinese money can be a deadly cocktail. And it will not be good for democracy.

It would be wise to heed the advice of the most successful American strategist, whose policies successfully contained the Soviet Union. Biden cannot be compared to Canon.

Thomas Mathew is a former civil servant and senior officer in the Indian Ministry of Defence.